Another ‘prayer rally’ proves again the irrelevance and hopelessness of the Opposition

A show-of-force by the Iglesia ni Cristo on EDSA in 2015 also claimed that prayer and not politics was the aim of the event.(Photo source: Inquirer)

Yet another “prayer rally”, and Filipinos add more proof of how primitive their politics is. What exactly does a “prayer rally” achieve? This latest one today, the 5th November 2017 to be held at the EDSA Shrine is being pitched in an Inquirer report as one that will harbour “no politics, just prayers for healing”.

“Let us ask that our prayers for the country’s healing be answered. The November 5 activity has no colors. It will stand for transparency, clarity of vision, purity of heart,” Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a video posted on his Facebook account on Thursday.

“We won’t be there to shout and hold a rally. We will pray and whisper to Jesus’ heart to ask for forgiveness, forgiveness for the country that sinned,” added the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

“Non-political”? This is another case where the banal dishonesty of the CBCP and those who follow it is on exhibit for all those who choose to see it. According to the Inquirer report “Groups critical of the administration, such as Movement Against Tyranny and #TindigPilipinas, were also expected to be at the event.” The word “also” is used here as if to imply that the attendance of these two groups (which are known leading “movements” within the Opposition) was purely incidental. “Educator” Bro. Armin Luistro also puts in a rather pathetic effort to paint this “prayer rally” as one that is non-partisan…

To critics who ascribe political or “yellow” undertones to the activity, Luistro said there was no more space where people could freely express what they feel, since doing so meant being labeled “yellow” or described as “destabilizers.”

“We are very concerned about that, that we are being divided into progovernment supporters and destabilizers. This is why we need the healing to begin,” Luistro said.

Luistro should step back and take stock of what it is exactly he is participating in. The EDSA Shrine is a symbol of Yellowtardism and the CBCP has long shown an almost perverse skew in its politics towards Yellowtards (Philippine politicalspeak for the supporters and top honchos of the former powers-that-be in the Liberal Party). Whenever “EDSA” is quoted, and whenever the CBCP is involved, one can bet good money that the event is deeply Yellowtard in nature and by design.

Asking the question “Is the EDSA Shrine a Yellowtard site?” is like asking Is the Pope Catholic? Luistro and all those who try to convince everyone that this event is non-partisan is, again, insulting the intelligence of Filipinos. You could feel the collective eyesroll of those who can see past the bullshittery baked into the marketing of this “prayer rally”.

What does prayer really achieve to begin with? This is a democracy after all, where representatives and chief executives are elected by popular vote and, as such, whose actions mirror the will of the people. There are clear channels ordinary people could use to influence their leaders. More likely, prayer rallies like these are shows of power rather than supposed occasions to “pray” or “talk to God”. Prayer can be done in private. Public prayers are political exercises pathetically disguised as “spiritual” community activities. The CBCP has long lost the credibility needed to pitch these nonsensical events as the latter. Even Sunday Masses have been politicised by the CBCP thanks to their routine abuse of this Filipino family tradition to further its political ends.

More to the point, the intent of this particular type of show of power is to emotionally-blackmail Filipinos. Fear of God after all remains deeply-ingrained in the Filipino psyche. Therefore a rally that is supposedly endorsed by God is implicitly one that “God-fearing” people must attend lest they be sentenced to eternal damnation for defying the word of God’s lieutenants on Earth (i.e. those men-in-robes that comprise the CBCP).

Parada ng Madre de Cacao na naman ang solusyon ng mga Dilawan.

Ultimately, it is up to Filipinos to decide whether they will continue to allow themselves to be subject to this institutionalised emotional blackmail and to continue to have their intelligence insulted by the CBCP and its Yellowtard minions.

Benigno At the CBCP website, there’s a relevant document dated way back 11 July1989 yet, authored by the late Archbishop of Caseres Leonado Z. Legazpi OP, its former president (1988-1991), aptly titled: “The Manipulative Use of Human Rights Violations,” available here. Read his description of how this manipulation is woven: “… the reprobation and publicizing by one political bloc of violations of human rights not specifically to put a stop to them (despite the rhetoric) but merely to blacken the political image of the other. This is using the misfortune of others–the victim, that is, of human rights abuse–to one’s narrow advantage.… Read more »

That describes exactly the sort of behaviour in the Opposition we are now seeing. They are always on a desperate search for the next “victim” to parade in front of Filipinos to further their political agenda. Funny indeed that within the CBCP website are writing that expose such a nefarious practice!

That EDSA shrine has now become a symbol of disunity. Tear it down and erect something that can truly unite the nation… how about a memorial for the fallen SAF44 with a huge sign “Never Again to Incompetence”?

As an educated person who spent 14 long years in The Philippines surrounded by the ignorance and arrogance of the CBCP and many other ignorant Filipinos, I feel I can comment freely now that I am safely back in the civilized world away from libel laws that are not the same as the rest of the world’s libel laws. The Catholic Church in Philippines is the only organization as corrupt as the government. It does everything in its power to keep the people uneducated and ignorant all the while stealing from the government and the people at large. One way… Read more »

The ultimate truth revealed do Filipinos after the EDSA “revolution” is that it is not “oppressive” governments or colonial masters that keep them poor, it is their cultural character. The Chinese and Jews were treated as third class citizens in many societies where they settled. But that did not prevent them from becoming a prominent business community wherever they went. In fact, the Jew’s excelled in money lending (and later banking) because they were the only ones willing to engage in those “sinful” lines of business back in the old days. Filipinos have yet to come to terms with the… Read more »

The Catholic Bishop Conferense of the Philippines (CBCP) is a political group, masquerading as a religious organization. Their Shrine is the EDSA Shrine, where the disinformation of the U.S./C.I.A. and the Aquino Cojuangco political axis, were prayed for and were circulated and disseminated. It is a “Shrine of Falsehood and Disinformation”…

Those Roman Catholic Priests are losing their political power over their followers. This is the reason, they are again active in this political show of force. They are not praying to their Gods. They are practicing politics !